either here or there.
MikeDYur
Posts: 2,176
I realize true geology can't be done @ this resolution.
I found this tilling up the garden quite a few years back, what I consider striations are visible to me, it measures 1.990" x 1.250" and weighs 36.7 grams, non metallic, no visible corrosion but looks like it has been in the ground awhile, even after cleaning, tiller tine damage is visible.
I have had a few people look at this and give me nothing to pin them on, I figured if I posted this in general discussion's, there is plenty of intellect here to make a vary educated evaluation.
I found this tilling up the garden quite a few years back, what I consider striations are visible to me, it measures 1.990" x 1.250" and weighs 36.7 grams, non metallic, no visible corrosion but looks like it has been in the ground awhile, even after cleaning, tiller tine damage is visible.
I have had a few people look at this and give me nothing to pin them on, I figured if I posted this in general discussion's, there is plenty of intellect here to make a vary educated evaluation.
720 x 1280 - 423K
720 x 1280 - 498K
720 x 1280 - 453K
720 x 1280 - 540K
720 x 1280 - 512K
Comments
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leaverite
Fossil or Not a Fossil?
Man-made or Not Man-made (like concrete, brick, glass, or slag)?
If you really want to do some formal work, a scratch test of hardness would be a useful intial test to disqualify a lot of possiblities. And you might read up on the geology of the region where it was found, as the knowledge about the context is useful.
Is it sedimentary, metamorphic, or igneous? http://www.classzone.com/books/earth_science/terc/content/investigations/es0602/es0602page01.cfm
You might fracture it, or cut it in half with a rock saw to get an unweathered view that can be view under magnification.
++++++
Hopefully you aren't going to ask use how to identify plants, fungus, and lichens next. The topics are huge.
With metals - you simply have pure, alloy, and amagam. Take a file to the surface and seem if you can get a look at something not weathered. The surface corrosion interfers with any real identification.
The problem here is that even in a wilderness, an old home site will have old trash dumps that could contribute anything to the soil that may not be of local origin. Cleaning out an old fireplace could offer up something like this and maybe someone thought they were adding just wood ash to the garden soil. Alternatively, someone might of burned a trash heap.
Measure volume by seeing how much water it displaces. Measure weight. And then you can get an indication of the actual density. That will point the way toward an answer.
After exposing a clean surface, there are tests that can be done with acids for further identification.
I guess you see why I never get any microcontroller projects done. I have too many other interests as well.
This seemed to be different, it's weight compared to it's size, the metals brightness beyond the crust on most of the surface, it definitely looks like heat was involved in it's formation, I will perform a couple of tests you had mentioned, as far as displacement, I will have to make a graduated cylinder, it was tested for precious metal, if a surface grind and a closer look with a camera prove interesting, I will have to purchase the chemicals for further testing.
http://www.skyrayxrf.com/precious-metals.php
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metallurgical_assay
I'd check density first as aluminum is much lighter than high value metals. Try referring a periodic table and work with the assumption that it is nearly pure. That is just a way to ballpark what it is. Could be nickel, or cadium as well.
It may be low melting point pot metal. This was used to make fancy castings that were chromed and put on cars, like the little mustang images on a Ford Mustang.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pot_metal
Hardness testing is cheap and easy. If it is light and has a high melting point, it could be titanium -- but I have my doubts as that is very hard to melt and used to be very expensive.
Weight was measured @ 36.75 grams, 1.29 ounces, 23.6 dwt (pennyweight), and a displacement as shown in my crudementry make shift chem lab, a.k.a. kitchen. The wife said, "what the h___ are you doing now". But I swear if this is slag of some sort, I will be embarressed to waste people's time.
Or before the 1950s, if you wanted to replace the main bearings on an automotive engine (or tractor) you would melt your own babbit linings into the bearing caps. Babbitt is an alloy of toxic metals. After doing a pour, a mechanic might just pour the rest on the gound and save it for a later project.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babbitt_(metal)
Definitely not lead, babbit metal is interesting.
Wow I bet that would solve it, All you need is fileings? There is something not normally in one's toolbox.
_mike
About 75% percent of all known elements are considered metal.
Babbitt metal has antimony in it, which is toxic. And pot metal might have cadium or other toxic metals. All this stuff was heavily produced before the environmental awareness of the 1960s and 70s kicked it. It easily looks that old and the context screams 'old rural dump'. Have you found a lot of old glass bottles? That would confirm the context.
Babbitt is indeed interesting. Everyone knows that you add salt to water to drop the freezing point, and add antifreeze to drop the freezing point. But freeze point is almost the same as melting point. Same admixtures raise the boiling point. That's why modern cars require 100% anti-freeze, better boil prevention.
When you mix metals into an alloy, you drop their melting point which has a molten state that is similar to a solution of a solvent such as water and whatever is discolved, and the solid state is just freezing at a temperture different than water.
This is called molar depression freezing point and can be determined by how much materials is disolves in the solvent. It is a bit wierd to think of metals as solvents, but seems to apply when molten.
I mean, hydrogen is a metal, who'd a thought it?
Getting down to it's freezing point so we can have some nice hydrogen ingots might be a bit tricky.
Here is a link to a picture for Heater to sort out.
http://www.angelo.edu/faculty/kboudrea/periodic/physical_metals.htm
If it is near the mass of iron, it may be a metorite.
http://geology.com/meteorites/meteorite-types-and-classification.shtml
I'm familiar with such pictures. Only I had not thought so hard about how many metals there were in there before.
Don't forget the Lanthanides and Actinides now.
I have had in the house for eight to ten years, if it is hot or carried an alien plague, I'm a gonner.
I find glass any time I dig a hole, just broken pieces here or there, this used to be a sixty acre farm before the 50s, that's what they done back then, out of sight out of mind,
I will get that sample off to you tomorrow, I want to take it to the post office for delivery, it will get out quicker, just couldn't do it after work, the feet said "No Go".
Thanks,
_mike
Why ask how many metals exist? metallurgy and material science. I am not an EE. I think about a wider scope of discover
@xanadu, The sample is at the P.O., and will go out this evening, I tried to keep as sterile of environment as possible, but traces of aluminum might be found, I used an unused spot on my file and taped the rest up, material clogged the file easily kind of like a soft aluminum, just to heavy for that. Please take the precautions necessary, in case it's what Loopy suggested, babbet metal.
End result was a tiny, hardly visible, speck that sent the counter off the scale!
I don't know if that had anything to do with him living within sight of the Sellafield nuclear fuel reprocessing plant
That is scary, can't be natural? How do you dispose of it? Call a government agency and you might have a fiasco. And I was worried about radon.
If you have a friend with a garden and a Geiger you're all set haha.